Graphics card performance experiences

[Nefje]

Radeon Mobility HD 4650

I have a laptop with the mobility 4650 and it certainly works.
The encounter was brief though because of the possibility of GPU throttling.

Radeon Mobility HD 5470

I'm back with my new laptop! So far I'm amazed by the difference, but it's probably just because of how god awful it looked before. It's extremely smooth, I can move around the town with ease, and I haven't had a chance to play around with the settings yet but I think it would run comfortably with them all on high. The save issue has also gone! Fingers crossed it's going to stay that way.

Windows 7, 64 bit. Intel Core i5-430M 2.26 GHz (Turbo Boost Speed 2.53 Ghz), 4 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470.

Radeon HD 2600 XT

Operating System: Windows Vista™ Ultimate (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.100218-0019)

System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Inspiron 530
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9300 @ 2.50GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
Memory: 3326MB RAM
Page File: 1732MB used, 5140MB available

DirectX Version: DirectX 11

Card name: ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x958
Display Memory: 1651 MB

Settings on high... no problems at all
Oh, and I am running WA, Ambitions, and HELS

Radeon Mobility HD 4670

Notebook. Intel Core2 P8600 @2.4ghz, 4gb ram, ATI Mobility Radeon 4670 w/1gb. Win-7 64bit. (1920x1080 screen resolution)

Surprising at just how well the notebook runs the game. O.K., So to keep scrolling a bit smoother I had to drop the detailed lots setting down to 2. But other than that seems to work quite well.

Radeon HD 4670 (1 GB)

I also had a Radeon 4670 (1 Gig) that is not on the list and the game ran great.

[Nefje]

Radeon HD 4850

I was running TS3 with good balance graphics on at 4850 512MB.

Radeon HD 4870

ATI 4870 and have no problems.

ATI 4870 1GB and I'm having no issues with graphics after disabling Adaptive AA in my control panel.

Radeon HD 5870

Intel Q6600 Oc'd to 3.2ghz, 4gb ram, ATI Radeon-HD 5870 video w/1gb. Win-7 64bit. Got the texture details back up and looking pretty like they should by disabling Application controls for AA and AI in the Catalyst Control center and manually bumping those settings to a higher level. Didn't seem to affect my game play. (Well other than everything looking super pretty)  
(1920x1200 Screen resolution)

[Nefje]

Intel GMA X3100 (Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset Family)

this is whats on the sticker on my laptop:

CPU: Intel Pentium Dual-Core T2390, 1.86 GHz
Memory: 2GB
HDD: 160 GB
Graphics: GMA X3100
OS: Vista Home Premium

I have everything on medium settings and it runs almost perfectly. 1 crash since ambitions, very occasional freezing only for a few seconds

okay mine is running pretty smoothly, jst a little lagging here and there but thts to be expected.
perating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_ldr.090302-1506)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Inspiron 1525
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A16
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T8300 @ 2.40GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 3062MB RAM
Card name: Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip type: Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family
DAC type: Internal
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2A02&SUBSYS_022F1028&REV_0C
Display Memory: 358 MB

(running: basegame, WA and Ambitions)

I recently just bought The Sims 3 and I was super excited because everything looked so good from the screenshots. So, after it took about 15-20 minutes to install I try to go play the game, everything is going good until I move my family into their house. The game is SUPER SLOW and the graphics are TERRIBLE. I don't know if there is something I can do to fix this, but I am disapointed for spending $50.00 on a game and it's not what I wanted at all. My sims are all blurry, and it takes forever to get the game playing. I'm not sure if there is a way to fix this, but if there is I would like help in knowing how to do it.

Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Basic (6.0, Build 6000) (6000.vista_gdr.070627-1500)
System Manufacturer: TOSHIBA
System Model: Satellite A205
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T2330 @ 1.60GHz (2 CPUs), ~1.6GHz
Memory: 1014MB RAM
Card name: Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family
Display Memory: 251 MB
Dedicated Memory: 0 MB
Shared Memory: 251 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 800 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Driver Version: 7.14.0010.1329 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 9/13/2007 17:23:46, 2498560 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes

Intel GMA 4500M

I have this one: click here

It's crashed a couple times and froze up once, but other than that works fine, so far. The customizing tool is slow to load, but other than that there's been no lagging problem. I haven't tried playing WA since installing Ambitions, so I can't tell you if there's any issues there. I have all the settings on maximum, no non-EA content and save often.

Intel GMA 4500MHD

I constantly have to enabled and disable full-screen mode to get the graphics better, but after a while, they begin to do the same thing. The graphics become blocky and wavy, and sims faces in the bar below get scrunched and skewed oddly. I have all the graphics sliders except for sim detail slid to the lowest setting, sim detail at medium. I want to be able to enjoy the graphics, but have a fast moving process. Here is my DxDiag report:

Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.100218-0019)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Studio 1537
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T6400 @ 2.00GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.0GHz
Memory: 3030MB RAM

Card name: Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Display Memory: 1291 MB
Dedicated Memory: 32 MB
Shared Memory: 1259 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 800 (32 bit) (59Hz)
Driver Version: 7.15.0010.1576 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 11/21/2008 07:05:28, 548864 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes

[Nefje]

MAC OS X Supported Video Cards
------------------------------

NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) -serie
   7300, 7600
   8600, 8800,
   9400M, 9600M
   GT 120, GT 130

ATI Radeon(TM) -serie
     X1600, X1900
   HD2400, HD2600
        HD3870, HD4850, HD4870

* Please note that this game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5)
based Mac systems (PowerMac)



Unsupported Video Cards
----------------------------------------
* Please note that attempting to play the game using video
hardware that isn’t listed above may result in reduced
performance, graphical issues or cause the game to not
run at all.

* The NVIDIA GeForce 7300 is unsupported under Snow Leopard.




Known and Possible Hardware Issues
======================================
Display Issues:
* When changing the display size, in some situations the
monitor may not respond to a resolution it claims to support,
showing a black or distorted display. If this occurs switch
to windowed mode, and then change the resolution and
refresh rate back to smaller values.

Audio Issues:
* Audio hardware acceleration is unsupported.


Mac OS X Issues:
* On Mac OS X systems that have NVIDIA cards with less than
256 MB of VRAM, you may need to reduce the graphics quality
in the game options menu for improved performance.

* If running the game on a MacBook Pro with display mirroring
turned on, ensure that you select a resolution which is
supported by both the internal and external displays.
A workaround for this issue is to ensure that the internal
LCD is the main system monitor before turning on display
mirroring, and you will be presented with the proper
resolutions.

* Occasionally the game audio will stop playing when headphones
are connected after the game is started. In order to prevent
this from occurring, please ensure that your headphones are
connected to your Mac before starting the game.

* When running on Snow Leopard with ATI Radeon X1600 or X1900 video
cards should run the game with the Lighting/Shadows slider set to low
avoid graphical errors.


Other issues:
* If you are using two NVIDIA GeForce graphics card with an
SLI-enabled motherboard and the game locks up, try updating
your drivers. If you still have problems, try disabling SLI.

* External audio devices may cause compatibility issues resulting in
audio distortions. Using the computer’s internal audio services, this
issue may be addressed by connecting the Line/Speaker output on the
computer into the audio system’s Aux (or Line) input.

[Nefje]

Intel GMA X3100

I got my Sims 3 running on Macbook White 4,1, no crash through the night, x3100 graphic, 4GB ram, 2.1Ghz C2D...

I can attest to this.. I have an Intel GMA x3100 in my Macbook (2.4ghz Core 2 Duo, 4gb RAM); the game runs like **** and crashes constantly. I'm pretty ticked b/c that video card is listed as supported on the box. IMO they shouldn't advertise the game as compatible with a certain card knowing it's going to be a terrible gaming experience. The 'minimum requirements' shouldn't just be if you can start the game - they should take into consideration if you can actually PLAY the game decently.

[Nefje]

GeForce GT 130

FWIW I tried it on my bf's brand spanking new iMac that has the NVidia GT 130, 3.06ghz Core 2 Duo, 8gig RAM & 1T hard drive. The game ran choppy & crashed on that too. Is the problem his video card?
Date: 05/06/09 22:53

GeForce GT 330M

I have The Sims 3 and The Sims 3 Ambitions installed on my laptop.
Macbook Pro 15 inch: 2.4GHz
Intel Core i5
4 GB memory
320 GB hard drive
Intel HD graphics
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 256 MB

But the game runs amazingly, better than it did on my old computer. Graphics are very very good and just the gameplay generally is smooth